Representing, progressing and collaborating for the educational and professional needs of rural GPs in Scotland.
Membership
Our membership comprises rural GPs from across Scotland. We aim to keep our members informed, and facilitate useful dialogue through our 'email Chatline'.
Read more about the benefits of membership here...Representation
Members of RGPAS have a common aim to maintain and develop high quality rural medical services. We are improving ways in which we can share good practice and great ideas.
Education
Educational activity is concentrated into the Annual Conference, usually held in November. We also highlight relevant events to our members, and are also involved in informing others (including NHS Scotland) on CPD needs of our members.
Engagement
We want to stimulate and enthuse medical students and trainees to consider rural practice. As well as our conference student scholarships, we also offer travel and elective scholarships for members and students.
Latest on Scottish GP contract concerns
In March 2019, the RGPAS committee decided to resign from the rural Short Life Working Group due to ongoing concerns about the new GP contract implementation to rural communities in Scotland, and concerns about the lack of progress in addressing the challenges that have presented.
This followed a survey of RGPAS members to ascertain current experiences of contract implementation in rural Scotland.
You can read the survey results here.
You can read the RGPAS resignation letter here.
More background information about the contract and concerns of rural GPs can be found here.
RGPAS NEWS
Most RGPAS news is distributed via the RGPAS email chatline, available to members.
We also output RGPAS news and information to the website RuralGP.com, and our own website here.
REMOTE & RURAL SCOTLAND…
18%
... of Scotland's population live in a rural area
98%
...of Scotland's landmass is rural
Rural Scotland accounts for 98% of the land mass of Scotland and nearly a fifth of the
population are resident there. Over recent years, the population of rural Scotland has
continued to grow at a faster rate than the rest of Scotland, driven by the increase in
accessible rural areas, mainly due to inward migration.
*Data and quote from Rural Scotland Key Facts 2015
(published by The Scottish Government)
RGPAS PRIORITIES
Sharing great ideas
Great ideas are even better when shared. Scottish rural practice is constantly evolving and innovating. We aim to use our network across rural GPs in Scotland to help with that collaboration. We believe in building international links, and we support this with our travel scholarships as well as fostering relations with rural GP organisations across the world.
New GP Contract
We believe that it is essential for the next GP contract, currently being negotiated with the Scottish Government, to be rural-proofed. Scotland's rural population is significant and rising, and with increasing demands on health & social care it is vital to ensure that general practice is supported by a contractual framework that is fit for all of Scotland's communities.
Further information about GP contractual negotiations is available from the BMA website.Collective identity
We are keen to develop RGPAS as a useful forum for rural practice in Scotland. Expanding our membership, developing useful resources for rural practice; we are well placed to bring together rural GPs from across Scotland.
Rural Connectivity
Connectivity is proving to be a rate-limiting-step in the integration of health & social care, and in allowing rural patients and clinicians to access appropriate online tools and services.RGPAS believes that the 'inverse connectivity law' is no longer acceptable, and calls on industry and government to act more effectively to improve this.
Read morePromoting Generalism
Generalist medicine is recognised as an important aspect of providing care to our more elderly and medically complex population. Expert generalism is demonstrated within rural practice, and we need to showcase this to highlight good practice, and offer inspiration for the innovation that future health care delivery requires.
Supporting members
In some cases, rural practice has the potential to cause professional isolation, increased pressures on work/life balance and impact on mental health. RGPAS is a member-driven organisation and we hope to improve peer-support mechanisms to support its members if times get difficult.
